Nostalgia

Over the weekend, I attended the Amelia Island Cars & Coffee and their 21st annual Concours d’Elegance. While there on Saturday, my wife and I were waiting to be shuttled to our parking area, when a Lamborghini Miura drove by a few times. On one pass, I captured some photographs of it approaching on the straight and rounding the corner. Later that night, looking through the raw files, the driver’s head and face, for some reason, looked very familiar… When I zoomed the image up to full size, I recognized him immediately; the retired legendary Lamborghini chief test driver, Valentino Balboni. Can someone help me get my jaw up off the floor? (more…)

This is without a doubt the best thing I have read all week, so I decided to re-share it here. Today on The DriveZach Bowman recounts in immersive and poetic detail how he and Alex Roy drove from Los Angeles to New York in a Morgan 3-Wheeler. In case you’re unfamiliar with the 3-Wheeler, it’s a 3-wheeled kit car with a wooden frame. A 3-wheeled kit car that’s as raw and fun as they come. This is equal parts hilarious, miserable, and awesome. Hat tip to Kamil Kaluski. Enjoy the read. (more…)

Many of you can probably remember when Volkswagen was known more for making small, cheap, ubiquitous cars with character, known as the Beetle, than they were for a diesel emissions controversy. Last Saturday, I was able to travel back to those good old days at the Florida Bug Jam, a family-friendly judged classic Volkswagen car show with a poker run and some dirt track hooning. I don’t think I spotted a single water-cooled VW while I was there, besides the one that I arrived in. (more…)

Old Japanese cars carving the canyons? Sign me up. I’m so stoked for the Touge California and I wasn’t even there. However, my buddy Blake Z. Rong was there for this new road rally and has a new article about the event today on Jalopnik. Check out the article after the jump, where he examines the origin of Touge California and features some of the cars that showed up for the event. (more…)

I didn’t completely understand the unadulterated love plied upon the Porsche 911. I know that it’s supposed to be a pure driving machine. I know that it’s a precise instrument for a skilled enthusiast. I know that I still didn’t fully “get it”.

Now it’s time for me to understand, and I’m not getting my Porsche 911 education by way of the latest and greatest that Stuttgart has to offer. Instead, we’re taking the harder route with a 1970 Porsche 911.

This harder route takes us to the always wonderful Angeles Crest Highway, and to a place where Porsche discovery can happen.

It turns out the harder route is actually the quickest way to make me understand why everyone loves the Porsche 911.

[Many thanks to John the owner for supplying us with the car, and also for snagging the oh-so-sweet drone shots.]

Jay Leno’s Garage brings us a new video review of a great old car, progenitor of the Honda S2000, the Honda S600, but this one being a bit more special, was abandoned and taken in by it’s current owner, Matt Brown, who swapped the engine from a 2007 Honda CBR1000RR motorcycle. It even has motorcycle suspension pieces and gauges. Matt Brown claims it’s “more motorcycle than car.” Jay fittingly calls it “California hot rodding at its best” and a fantastic creation from the “more brains than money club.” Check out the video. This little roadster is a screamer!

I was a typical kid who grew up with a Lamborghini Countach model on my bookshelf and Porsche Turbo poster on my wall. The early 2000s began the era of the Fast and the Furious, where every kid dreamed of owning a Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, or any other Japanese street racer.

I wish I could say I grew up learning how to wrench for my father, but in reality it was very much a self-taught skill. I began my petrolhead ways tinkering with a number of cars. However, a few years in, I began to losing interest in working on modern cars. I found little satisfaction from driving my completed projects and yearned for something more pure.

This is when the Datsun 240Z came into my life. A straight-six motor, overhead cam, dual side-draft carburetors, lightweight chassis, and a winning race history made up the “personal” GT car. For me, it was perfection.

Fast forward half a decade and half a dozen Z cars later, I now own the car I spent more than decade to find. (more…)